Texas Has a New Toothy Pterosaur

The Dallas-Fort Worth skies were once dominated by Aetodactylus halli, a new toothy genus and species of pterosaur, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The 95 million-year-old flying reptile, also known as a pterodactyl, lived during the Cretaceous Period when most other pterosaurs were toothless. As you can see in the below, Aetodactylus halli was an exception to that toothless trend.

It's one of the youngest members of the pterosaur family Ornithocheiridae, according to paleontologist Timothy Myers, who helped to identify and name Aetodactylus halli. It's only the second ornithocheirid ever documented in North America, says Myers, a postdoctoral fellow in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

When the pterosaur was alive, most of the Lone Star state was under water, covered by an immense ancient sea.